i got my discharge from fort irwin took a place on the san diego county line felt funny bein’ a civilian again it’d been some time my wife had died a year ago i was still tryin’ to find my way back whole went to work for the ins on the line with the california border patrol bobby ramirez was a ten year veteran we became friends his family was from guanajuato so the job it was different for him he said “they risk death in the deserts and mountains pay all they got to the smugglers rings we send ’em home and they come right back again carl hunger is a powerful thing.”

well i was good at doin’ what i was to l’d kept my uniform pressed and clean at night i chased their shadows thru the arroyos and ravines drug runners farmers with their families young women with little children by their sides come night we’d wait out in the canyons and try to keep ’em from crossin’ the line

well the first time that i saw her she was in the holdin’ pen our eyes met and she looked away then she looked back again her hair was black as coal her eyes reminded me of what i’d lost she had a young child cryin’ in her arms i asked “senora is there anything i can do?”

there’s a bar in tijuana where me and bobby drink alongside the same people we’d sent back the day before she said her name was louisa she was from sonora and had just come north we danced and i held her in my arms and i knew what i would do she said she had some family in madera county if she her child and younger brother could just get thru

at night they come across the levee in the searchlight’s dusty glow we’d rush ’em in our broncos force ’em back down into the river below she climbed into my truck she leaned toward me and we kissed as we drove her brother’s shirt slipped open and i saw the tape across his chest

we were just about on the highway when bobby’s jeep come up in the dust on my right i pulled over and let my engine run and stepped out into his lights i felt myself movin’ my gun restin’ ‘neath my hand we stood there starin’ at each other as off thru the arroyo she ran

bobby ramirez he never said nothin’ 6 months later i left the line i drifted to the central valley and took what work i could find at night i searched the local bars and the migrant towns lookin’ for my louisa with the black hair fallin’ down